Story Worms: Interview with N.M. Scuri, a Women in Horror Month Special

As part of Women in Horror Month I interviewed fellow female horror writer, N.M. Scuri. She is a short story author, novelist, college instructor, and editor. She holds a Master’s Degree in English Literature from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and her work has appeared in The Spectral Times, among others.

Her publications include “It’s All Good News,” which is included in the anthology Sins of the Past, 13: Thirteen Paintings and Stories, a collection of short stories and art by Byron Rempel, and “The Watcher in the Sea”, set in the Aokigahara forest in Japan. She is also a regular on the internet radio show Ghost News Network, where she discusses literature, as well as historical topics in the paranormal.

When she’s not terrorizing freshmen or posting two-sentence horror stories, she’s tending to her schnauzer, Yoshi’s, social media footprint and frightening her relatives. You can find her at gplus.to/nmscuri.

How did you first become interested in horror, and what led you to write in that genre?It’s just a genre I’ve always loved. My mom was a huge Dark Shadows fan and I was raised on Hammer films and Stephen King.

How do people react when you tell them you write horror?They don’t know what to make of it. People have, well, peculiar ideas about writers in general, horror writers in particular. I guess I don’t look the type to have bodies hidden in my basement, as far as they know…

What prompted your decision to publish under your initials rather than your full name?When I graduated from college, I began teaching. I wanted to keep my online writing life separate from my teaching life.

Why do you think horror is such a male-dominated genre? Do women have a harder time as horror writers?Unfortunately, I think we do. I was reading an excellent article about the public perception of horror writers, only to see the author (a male horror writer guest blogging on a female writer’s blog) refer to the “next generation of breakout horror writers” as great husbands and fathers. It can be frustrating.

What do you think the future of the horror genre is?There are a lot of great new writers coming out, both male and female, established writers like Joe Lansdale and Stephen King are still producing excellent work, and shows like the Walking Dead are mainstream. Going forward, I see the genre continuing to grow. An important development is the diversification of the genre: we have everything from psychological horror to splatterpunk. There is something for every taste and sensibility.

What are you working on now?I’m working on a collection of two sentence horror stories with illustrator Byron Rempel. He’s great to work with and brings a suitably disturbing dimension to the stories. His 1000 Zombies project is worth checking out.

About Angeline Trevena

Angeline Trevena is a British dystopian horror author. The first book in her Paper Duchess series, The Bottle Stopper, was published in 2015, and her short stories appear in various anthologies and magazines. The most unlikely of horror writers, Angeline is scared of just about everything, and still can't sleep in a fully dark room. She goes weak at the sight of blood, can't share a room with a spider, but does have a streak of evil in her somewhere. Find out more at www.angelinetrevena.co.uk